Existing passport security technology links identity of an individual by embedding a photograph within the passport.
The existing linkage is not cryptographically strong as substituting a different photograph is relatively easy. Also, the photograph is compared manually to the face of the traveler by the border control inspector, which has certain problems.
To enhance security, it has been proposed to provide machine-readable passport or identity card in which biometric data is stored in a chip within the document and can be retrieved for examination. Typically, the biometric data will be an iris scan, fingerprint or images of the face of the bearer.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has proposed machine readable travel documents (MRTD), i.e. e-Passport system that authenticates the identity of individuals to border control stations by cryptographically linking the identity of the individual (such as name and nationality) to biometric data for the individual.
The cryptographic linkage is obtained by digitally signing the identity data and biometric data of the individual. The resulting signed identity and biometric information is conveyed from the passport to a passport reader. The signature binds the identity of the individual to the biometric identity, which makes faking a passport a cryptographically hard problem. A concern arises however that each individual's biometric information is highly sensitive and should not be inadvertently made available.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to obviate or mitigate the above disadvantages by making it more difficult for unauthorized parties to obtain the biometric information and other sensitive information from a document such as a passport.